Overview

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Description

Answer the following questions as if you were giving advice to a student teacher.

How would I introduce a discussion of my approach to instructional design?			I am a Special Education teacher and as such; my resources are limited at the school that I work. They do not even have a curriculum for these students. So what is my instructional design you may ask?
What are my resources for designing units and lessons?			Some of my resources that I use in the classroom are of course, books on specific subjects and skills. I also use other teacher's resources and who have them available at the time I need them. When it comes to technology; I use the computer a lot and the smart board to do my lessons and teach the students how to do something. I use a lot of Power Point Presentations and smart lessons designed by our Smart Lesson person who designs the lessons and teacher workshops on smart board. The computer has a lot of information that can be used to show kids how to do something or if I need a more depth approach, I can always find something that relates to my lesson.
What do I generally do first?			The first thing that I do is to figure out what I am going to teach. Since my students have goals, I have to concentrate what goals they have on their Individual Education Program. Then, I think about the resources that I am going to need, I vision how I am going to proceed or start my lesson and then add as I go and think how best to design this lesson in order for my students to learn.
How do I interact with the standards?			In every lesson, I have to add not only the state standards but also the language objectives. For example, if I am teaching the parts of speech, I look at the standards and maybe break down the standard in different parts in order for my students to understand. There are several parts of speech and if I want my students to learn them all I have to do smaller lessons in order for them to comprehend what it is that they are learning.
What are my constraints and how do I respond to them?			My constraints are that sometimes my resources are limited and I have to be very creative in order for my students to learn what they need to learn without the resources at hand. I am very creative and can be quick at coming up with ideas at the last minute.
How do I approach student assessment?			Sometimes when I assess the students it can be orally due to my low functioning students. I also use paper and pencil or ask qshort uestions that they can answer and are able to write also.
How do I approach post-assessment?			Sometimes when I use post-assessment is by giving paper and pencil tests to see how my students are progressing. I like to use excel to do charts and post them on the board for the kids to see how much ;they are progressing.
How do I approach self-assessment?			When I self-assess myself, I ask my self questions about how did I do with this lesson. What can I change about this lesson, how can I improve the lesson or was my lesson a good lesson and did the kids learn from it. I reflect a lot on the things that happened when I taught the lesson and change what needs to be changed the next time I teach it.
What are areas I would like to learn more about and/or become better at?			I believe that the areas that I would like to improve or learn more is how to incorporate more technology in the classroom and how to write interesting lessons where I can keep my students engaged 90% of the time.
What final advice would I give about my approach to instructional design?			My approach is not the only approach but if you can use it do so. If not find out what works best for you. Talk to other teachers and get their inputs and throw out what you think is not worth keeping and keep what is worth keeping. The main thing is to learn from others and to be the best teacher you can be and design lessons that will engage the students and most importnat that they learn it.